Ret

Ret is a planet of harsh winds and fine sand. The landscape constantly shifts with rolling dunes and brutal sandstorms. Orbiting an unforgiving red dwarf star, Ret is tidally locked so that one side is perpetually day, and the other forever night. Ret has a single moon, Jale, that appears charred black in the dusky sky. Because Ret constantly faces its star, reading the orbit of Jale is the only way to measure the passing of time. It has been roughly 9,000 years according to the earliest known records of Ret that people have been around and have grown to the current civilization it is today.   The inhabitants of Ret have learned to survive on the daylight side, traversing the sands by native mega-fauna or by ironclad vessels that propel through the sands as if it were an ocean. Across the landscape, Ret is dotted with the occasional outcrop 'island' where settlements, cities, mining/farming colonies, or trading outposts can be built and accessed via a harbor. To be left stranded on the barren sand itself is akin to being deserted in an ocean with little chance of survival. Sand storms are a normal occurrence, bringing swirling columns of abrasive dust and lightning with them.   Water is the only universal currency with a history of being an invaluable and often unstable commodity. Tribes, pirates, kingdoms, governments, and nomads have waged many wars over water as the supply and demand market of it fluctuates wildly. Currently the only known way of manufacturing water is with highly expensive dew farms or high altitude collectors. Naturally occurring water is even more rare, with the few oases and well shrines being controlled by powerful nobility and organizations. Once in a decade or so, the 'Tears of Respite' drizzle the landscape with water. The 'Tears of Respite' are generally followed by a long period of peacetime, until water supplies once again dwindle.   The dark side of Ret is shrouded in mystery, as very few ships will even attempt to venture past the horizon, the dusky boundary where Ret's sun cannot reach. Legend holds that a malignant force resides there, hungry to devour the souls of mortals. Other whispered rumors maintain the dark side is rampant with a disease some call 'shadow madness'. Whatever the case, the twisted hulls of destroyed derelicts which litter the horizon itself is enough to turn any curious traveler back towards the safety of the sun.